Flower Vase - Blackstone

Flower Vase Blackstone is a beautiful addition to your ethnic home decor. It provides an elegant look and feel regardless of where it is placed. Decorate your centre table, coffee table or dining table with this unique artefact and bring home the rustic collection at affordable prices from goroots. The vase has been carved by Manipuri tribes who define the art of Blackstone pottery in their own way. It has been crafted and decorated without making use of any kind of tools or equipments. The dark-hued pot is suitably coiled on the rim with thin strips of cane.Plus, this Blackstone Flower Vase can also prove to be a great gift idea for people who love collecting antique handicrafts.

About Blackstone Pottery

Flower Vase Blackstone is an intriguing Blackstone artefact, handcrafted using traditional techniques of Longpi pottery. The artisans of Manipur are still practising the century old tribal handicraft as it brings their raw skills and sheer talents into the picture.

Blackstone pottery products were used by prominent royal families in India, during religious ceremonies and festivities. Hence, also referred to as royal pottery, the art of Blackstone is regal in its own sense.

The art is also a symbol of devotion of the Thankul Naga tribes of the Ukhrul district of Manipur who accomplish and respect this form of pottery as a devotion to Goddess Panthobi and Nongpok Ningthou, equivalents of Goddess Durga and Lord Shiva respectively.

Blackstone Pottery is consists of a mixture of crushed Serpentine rock and weather rock used in the ratio 3:1.The artefacts such as the Flower Vase Blackstone are not only used as kitchen and dining essentials but also as decorative pieces of art.

Procedure

Around 200 men and women artisans the Thankul Naga tribes, who are the inhabitants of the Longpi village of the Ukhrul district of Manipur, ply the craft of Blackstone earthenware with their rich untamed skills.

The remarkable feature of Blackstone pottery is that artisans do not resort to the potters wheel, instead, they use out of the ordinary the coiling method in order to achieve the desired shape and size of the artefact they have in their mind.

To begin with, the artists crush the Serpentine rock and weathered rocks in the ratio 3:1, along with a certain proportion of clay, water and soil.
The crushed rocks are mixed adequately to form a mixture which is later shaped by the use of hands. The final shape of the artefact wholly depends on the skills and techniques the craftsmen put to use.

The brownish-black colour and the smoke stains are a result of intensely treating the artefact to high temperatures as much as 900 degree Celsius.

The Longpi artists finally bake the vase artefact on cow-dung and straw. After polishing the artefact with a special mixture of Chirona and beeswax, it has to be given finishing touches by decorating it with thin strips of plain wicker or pale rattan sticks.

Region

The art of Blackstone pottery exclusively belongs to the Ukhrul district in the north-eastern state of Manipur. The Thankul Naga tribes are the inhabitants of the Longpi village, which is situated in Ukhrul. The district is about 85kms eastward to Imphal, the capital of Manipur.

goroots provides a concrete backing to the Black Pottery craftsmen situated in the remote interiors of Manipur. We encourage the ability of the tribal handicraft artisans and genuinely support their efforts through our website.